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Friday - March 23, 2007

Game 28: Kansas State at Texas

The Horns continued their winning ways tonight. They beat Kansas State 10-3 to take their winning streak to 8 games with a 4-0 record in Big 12 play. Purty. James Russell started and did a great job. He pitched into the 9th inning and was pretty much unhittable. Kansas State only managed to go 2 men over the minimum through the first 8 innings. He did get into a bit of trouble in the 9th but the offense gave him more than enough support to make the trouble rather inconsequential. He went 8.1 innings and gave up all three runs on 5 hits (4 singles and a double) while throwing 5 strikeouts and walking 2. Pat McCrory went into the game with a couple of runs across and runners at 1b and 2b. He gave up a single, induced a pop-up out of the next batter, and struck the final batter out to end the game.

And, so...the game:

• 1st inning, KSU
• Bunker flew out to rf.
• Cruz singled to rf.
• Biery lined out to lf. 'Looked like a hit-and-run attempt to me. Dad thought the base-runner was trying to steal 2b. Regardless, he broke hard for 2b before James was very far into his wind-up and was standing on the bag when Jordan Danks caught the ball in lf. He ran back toward 1b but was gunned down 7-4-3 to end the Kansas State half of the inning with a beautiful double play.
• 1st inning, Texas
• Travis Tucker lined out to lf.
• Chance Wheeless walked.
• Jordan Danks hit into an unassisted double play by the 1st baseman who caught a line drive behind Chance. He was easily able to beat Chance back to the bag. Pay back. Damn!
• 2nd inning, KSU
• 3-up, 3-down (fly out to lf, fly out to cf, strikeout).
• 2nd inning, Texas
• Bradley Suttle singled to lf.
• During Kyle Russell's at-bat, Bradley was picked off (1-3) at 1b.
• Kyle lined out to 1b.
• Russell Moldenhauer grounded out to 1b.
• 3rd inning, KSU
• 3-up, 3 down (strikeout, fly out to rf, ground out to ss).
• 3rd inning, Texas
• Josh Prince singled up the middle.
• Preston Clark moved Josh to 2b with a sac bunt to the pitcher.
• Nick Peoples walked.
• Travis Tucker grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.
• 4th inning, KSU
• 3-up, 3-down (ground out to 1b, stike out looking, fly out to cf).
• 4th inning, Texas
• Chance Wheeless grounded out to 2b.
• Jordan Danks singled to lf.
• Bradley Suttle walked.
• Kyle Russell struck out.
• Russell Moldenhauer singled to rf. Jordan scored and Bradley moved to 3b. The catcher could not handle the throw from rf and Russell tried to get to 2b on the mis-cue. The pitcher did a great job backing the catcher up, though, and gunned Russell out (9-2-1-6, I suppose) at 2b for the 3rd out.
• Texas up 1-0.
• 5th inning, KSU
• Wiley struck out looking.
• Rumler doubled to lf.
• Muenster flew out to cf. Rumler tagged up and advanced to 3b.
• Tenbrick struck out looking.
• 5th inning, Texas
• Josh Prince grounded out to the pitcher.
• Preston Clark hit the first pitch he saw waaaaaaaayyyyy over the lf fence. Wow.
• Nick Peoples walked (full count).
• Travis Tucker reached on an error by 3b. He hit a sharp grounder right at the third baseman who was unable to gather up the ball. Runners safe at 1b and 2b.
• Chance Wheeless singled to rf (rbi). Runners at the corners.
• Jordan Danks flew out to lf.
• Bradly Suttle hit the second home run of the inning. He hit a long hard shot to rf. It's the sort of hit that almost always curves foul by the time it gets to the of fence. I believe it's just possible that the pretty stiff wind from the south kept that ball fair. And, it was fair by a good 3 or 4 feet. Purty.
• KSU sent Ruch in to pitch.
• Kyle Russell struck out looking. And, he was not happy with the call. Yikes.
• Texas up 6-0. Those last three runs were unearned, by the way.
• 6th inning, KSU
• 3-up, 3 down (fly out to rf, line out to rf, line out to 2b). On the line drive to rf, Kyle Russell made one of his spectacular long-run and DIVE!!! catches to make the out. As my mom was happy to point out, he can make those kinds of plays 'cause he knows if he somehow misses the ball, Nick Peoples is right there to back him up and get the ball in.
• 6th inning, Texas
• Russell Moldenhauer singled off the mound and into cf.
• Josh Prince hit a sac bunt down the 3b line to move Russell to 2b.
• Preston Clark hit a triple off the top of the lf fence (rbi). It was very close to being his second home run. But, not quite enough elevation on the ball.
• Nick Peoples singled to shallow rf (rbi).
• KSU sent Vogel in at p.
• Travis Tucker struck out.
• Chance Wheeless flew out to rf.
• Texas up 8-0.
• 7th inning, KSU
• Michael Demperio went in at 2b.
• Cruz walked on 4 pitches.
• Biery popped ut to 2b in foul territory. A very nice play by Michael who'd just entered the game!
• Very peculiarly, the home plate umpire called a balk on James Russell as Wiley stepped into the batter's box. It was very very odd in that he called the balk before anyone even had a chance to think about getting set. I have no idea what happened. James didn't drop the ball. Augie argued the call. But, it stood. Naturally.
• Wiley ended up flying out to lf. On the play, Biery tagged up and advanced to 3b.
• Rumler lined out to ss.
• 7th inning, Texas
• Jordan Danks drew a full-count walk.
• Bradley Suttle flew out to lf.
• Jordan advanced to 2b on a wild pitch and then 3b on a passed ball during Kyle Russell's at-bat.
• He didn't really have to bother advancing, though, because Kyle hit a monster home run over the rf fence. I guess he didn't want Preston and Bradley to have all the glory. Heh.
• Russell Moldenhauer grounded out to 3b.
• Josh Prince popped out to 1b. Again, the wind caught the ball that went up in foul territory but ended up falling about 10 feet inside the baseline.
• Texas up 10-0.
• 8th inning, KSU
• 3-up, 3-down (fly out to cf, line out to cf, ground out to 3b).
• That made for 5 (!) 3-up, 3-down innings for the Horns. Wow.
• 8th inning, Texas
• Preston singled to rf but was stranded at 1b.
• Nick flew out to cf; Michael struck out; and Chance flew out to lf.
• 9th inning, KSU (aka: There goes the shut-out...damn!)
• Vaughn walked on 4 pitches.
• Bunker singled up the middle.
• Muse (pinch-hitting for Cruz) grounded out to 2b. Runners at 2b and 3b.
• Biery singled to lf (rbi). Runners at the corners.
• Wiley singled on a high pop-up to lf (rbi). Runners at 1b and 2b. I think the ball might've been pushed further into lf by the wind than either Josh at ss or Jordan in lf thought it would go. Josh seemed to have a clear line on the ball and suddenly, it fell to the ground behind him and in front of Jordan.
• Texas sent Pat McCrory to the mound. James got a standing ovation as he left the field. By my count, he threw 110 pitches. And, a lot of 'em were strikes.
• The runners advanced to 2b and 3b on a wild pitch by Pat during Rumler's at-bat.
• Rumler singled down the 3b line (rbi). Pat tried to field and throw Rumler out at 1b but just couldn't get to the ball fast enough. Runners at the corners.
• Muenster popped out to 1b (foul).
• During Bloxom's at-bat, Rumler stole 2b. But, really, it was as much a matter of defensive indifference as anything else.
• Bloxom struck out looking.

And, as I said earlier: Texas wins 10-3!! Woo hoo!! James threw a great game. All of the starters with the exception of Josh Prince scored at least 1 run. Which means that everyone contributed nicely on the offensive side of things. It was a very enjoyable game for Texas fans.

A couple of random notes:

• Clay Van Hook was coaching 1b. Greg Swindell usually does that. I wasn't listening to the radio so don't know if they ever explained why Greg wasn't there.
• During Chance's 4th plate appearance, I noticed that the scoreboard was proclaiming loudly and proudly that he had 13 RBIs and 14 HRs. Heh heh. I don't know if it was that way for the whole game but it was still that way on his next (and final) plate appearance. I believe he's only hit 1 home run this year. I like the math involved, though, in having fewer RBIs than HRs. Heh.

Ah well. Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 11:08 PM